“So, let’s first cover animal-kin in general,” she said, then took a deep breath.

“From what I’ve learned, animal-kin were basically a separate species long ago. They very much appeared much more animalistic than we do today. For example, us foxkin used to have elongated snouts. Our hands more resembled paws, though we still had thumbs. And we were pretty much covered in fur, or scales, or whatever animal the animal-kin was related to.

“As to where animal-kin first came from, I don’t think anyone knows. But getting back to our appearance, that’s more sensitive, depending on who you’re speaking with.

“You see, animal-kin used to live in their own tribes, not interacting with people as they did their own thing. But then humans met them. From what I’ve learned, the animal-kin were pretty much enslaved and, depending on their lineage, treated like livestock.

“Though, eventually, humans started to take a more… carnal interest in the animal-kin. After centuries of interbreeding, you see the results,” Celys finished with a frown, but also a slight blush in her cheeks.

“I… should have expected that,” he said, recalling just how many furries could be found on Earth.

“So, that’s why animal-kin look so… human,” she said, shaking her head. “And that’s why animal-kin slaves are so popular. I’m told that the allure of such exotic women is too much for some to resist.”

Joram wisely kept his mouth shut.

“So, seeing as how you claim not to be human,” Celys said, taking a tangent. “Can you give me a grandchild if you marry Myra?”

He just about [Teleport]’d away right then, not quite able to withstand such a question combined with her earnest expression.

“Ah…” he drawled blankly.

“Well, we can worry about that when the time comes,” Celys said, throwing him a bone. “Anyways, it has gotten quite late, and I should go. Remember to ask for help when you need it, and to visit Lory,” she said as she stood up, then gave her Lazy-Guy a look of longing.

“Thank you for the talk,” Joram said, surprised at how much he meant it.

“Anything for my future son-in-law,” Celys said cheekily. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, then gave him a light hug before heading off.

Feeling much lighter than before, he made his way to his bedroom and stopped just outside as his [Touchsight] told him what was happening in the room, thanks to the gap under the door. Which caused him to quickly turn it off as his mind was filled with them getting changed.

A quick bit of [Clear Mind], and another System notification that he promptly ignored, and he was once more settled. So, he waited for another few minutes before entering.

“Welcome back,” Myra said with a smile from the edge of his bed, inadvertently reminding him of his talk with Celys.

“Thanks,” he said, looking away.

“What’s the matter?” Myra asked as she got up and put the back of her hand on his forehead. “Are you overworking yourself?” she asked, obviously concerned.

“I’m fine,” he said before quickly side-stepping her and b-lining it to get changed behind the screen.

“If you say so,” Myra said, sounding a bit confused.

“I’m sure the [Legendary Monk] will be fine,” Asami snickered, making him blush yet again.

Curse you Celys! Now I’m thinking about it!!! He silently raged before calling on [Clear Mind] again to help cool him off.

By the time he finished changing, he was once more composed, so he turned [Touchsight] back on, just in case.

“Just lots on my mind,” he said by way of explanation.

“Indeed,” Asami said, stretching her arms out over her head and drawing attention to her chest. “Lots,” she said when she finished her stretch.

The three gals, he noticed, were taking it all in like desperate housewives tuning in on Monday to see what happened after Friday’s cliff-hanger on their favourite Soap Opera.

“Let’s just get to bed,” he said with a sigh, hoping that Asami wouldn’t continue with the teasing innuendos.

Thankfully, she seemed to have gotten enough teasing in and left it at that. Unfortunately, with [Touchsight] going, he could see that the three gals were watching them like hawks as Myra and Asami settled into place. They continued to watch him even after he turned the light off.

Suppressing another sigh, he dove into [Clear Mind] and got to renewing himself.

*Day 6*

The morning passed pretty quickly, even with the two lessons added to it. He also took aside the women of Kirkwall and asked if any of them wanted to work for him long-term.

He was pleased to find that all thirty of them said yes, also letting him know that the twenty bronze per day was a good wage for them, also citing that the free food more than made up for any small difference in what they’d usually get paid.

So, with their agreement, he took down each of their information so that he could make a trip to the bank later. Probably tomorrow, if he didn’t get distracted again. Though, setting up their pay was important, so he made sure to have M2 remind him about it.

Once that was taken care of, he wandered off to the bamboo plot and hummed in thought. Now that he could just create what he needed, he didn’t really need to keep it around. Especially since he wasn’t sure if it would be considered an invasive species.

With that last thought in mind, he quickly uprooted all the bamboo, making sure to get all of the roots, and any shoots that had spread. Then had another thought.

‘Avi? How do I put stuff in my Realm?’

‘Just think about it,’ she said as she floated by on what looked like a cloud.

‘I-,’ he cut off, remembering his conversation with her about his hair.

He quickly gathered up the small mountain of bamboo and concentrated on moving it into his Realm. A moment later, it vanished. He then… felt the stack appear in his Realm. He couldn’t quite describe it beyond just… knowing… that it was there. Still weird.

‘That’s helpful,’ he sent with a smile, thinking about how long it would take to get the Realm to the size it needed to be to be more-or-less flat in appearance…. Which would take a while, he realized after a bit of mental math.

‘It’ll be fine if you just keep manifesting [Genesis, True] every day,’ Avi said as she floated by again.

‘Thanks,’ he sent with more than a little gratitude for her once more pulling his mind out of a death spiral.

‘It’s what I’m here for,’ she said cheerily as she floated away.

Realizing that his workload had just increased, he quickly reworked the now empty plot and left it alone for the time being. Maybe the girls would like to grow something local. Yeah, probably. He knew how homesick he got if he didn’t have something familiar to eat when he was out of the country…. Well, that really didn’t matter too much now.

He quickly reviewed how much it would cost to manifest [Genesis, True] again, and found that it would cost him exactly one hundred Dust Crystals per manifestation. With M4 producing roughly 142 per day, he should still be in the black if he did that every day. Though, if he somehow had enough, he could double that cost to have the Realm grow by 20km diameter per day….

M2: Oh, hey. I’ve been working on messing around with the Dust Crystals, keeping what Zerava told us about them, and I’ve learned a few things.

Joram: Oh? Why don’t I already know that? He wondered/asked, remembering that all of his Minds should know what any of the others knew or were doing at any given time.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

M2: We’re easily distracted, so we compartmentalized. Anyways, I’ve found that absorbing one Unit of Dust, or UD, will give us exactly one thousand experience points. Which means that a full Dust Crystal would give us one hundred thousand experience points. Which means that we can level pretty quickly, even if we’re just sitting around.

Joram: That’s… crazy.

M2: Yeah, it feels pretty broken if you ask me, but who cares? If this System allows Dust to help level up a person, who are we to argue?

Joram: That’s true….

M2: I’ve also tried experimenting with directing that Dust to level up our attributes, and I must say, that it worked out well. Though, it did take a full ten Dust Crystals to get one point of Charisma. I’m not sure if that’ll still hold for the others, but I’ll give it a try anyways.

Joram: I’m going to need much more Dust, aren’t I?

M2: Yep.

Joram: Have you tried levelling up Skills yet?

M2: Not yet, no. I wanted to let you know about what I’ve found before that.

Joram: Then you should try [Mana Well] and [Source of Power], as they’ll both increase my regeneration rates significantly if they pass the next threshold.

M2: I was thinking the same thing!

Joram: Great minds…

M2: We’re not that egotistical yet.

Joram: ….

M2: … think alike.

Joram smiled, though he wasn’t sure if that counted as bullying himself. He shrugged, then stopped to check his notifications.

Congratulations!

You’ve gained the following Skills:

- Construction: Huge

- Toughness

You’ve levelled the following Skills:

- Analyze 10 -> 14

- Clear Mind, Advanced 42 -> 51

- Construction: Huge 1 -> 3

- Craft: Cooking, Improved 18 -> 20

- Skill upgrade: Craft: Cooking, Improved -> Craft: Cooking, Advanced

- Craft: Cooking, Advanced 20 -> 21

- Craft: Sculpting, Greater 45 -> 48

- Craft: Tailor, Improved 18 -> 20

- Skill upgrade: Craft: Tailor, Improved -> Craft: Tailor, Advanced

- Craft: Tailor, Advanced 20 -> 21

- Craft: Weaving, Improved 18 -> 20

- Skill upgrade: Craft: Weaving, Improved -> Craft: Weaving, Advanced

- Craft: Weaving, Advanced 20 -> 22

- Create Dungeon 18 -> 19

- Diplomacy 9 -> 10

- Skill upgrade: Diplomacy -> Diplomacy, Improved

- Diplomacy, Improved 10 -> 11

- Harvesting 4 -> 6

- Lucky 13 –> 16

- Mana Manipulation 25 -> 27

- Master Summoner 17 -> 20

- Metalshaping 3 -> 13

- Multitasking 4 -> 16

- Privacy Mode 11 -> 18

- Skill upgrade: Quick Casting -> Quick Casting, Improved

- Quick Casting, Improved 20 -> 29

- Quick Manifesting 36 -> 45

- Stealth, Improved 33 -> 40

- Skill upgrade: Stealth, Improved -> Stealth, Advanced

- Stealth, Advanced 40 -> 49

- Telekinesis, Improved 38 -> 41

- Skill Upgrade: Terrakinesis –>Terrakinesis, Improved

- Terrakinesis, Improved 20 -> 25

You’ve gained the following Achievements:

- Ascetic

- Harem II

Looking over the crazy list of improvements and happily humming at his progress, he literally fell over when the saw the two Achievements.

How in all of Creation do those two make any sense together?! He wondered, nearly dumbstruck by them.

‘Ha!’

‘Shut up…’ he sent back before pulling up the descriptions for each of them.

Ascetic

You have slept with a partner who you consider extremely attractive for two full months without engaging in sexual activities, defying your genetic and psychological imperatives.

Benefits:

- +10 Spirit

- Extremely enhanced ability to resist the seduction of someone you find sexually attractive.

Harem II

Through winning over, or owning, more than 20 women, your appeal to the fairer sex now knows no bounds.

Through winning over, or owning, more than 50 women, your appeal to the fairer sex now knows no bounds.

Benefits (condensed):

- +10 Charisma

- Increased favourability with members of the opposite sex.

- New slaves view you with greater favourability, and their favourability increases at a greater rate.

Demerits:

- How society views you changes according to how your harem sees you.

- Should your favourability drop with your harem, social interactions with others will also drop.

- Should your favourability with your harem increase, social interactions with others will improve.

”What the actual fuck…?” he said, staring at the two “Achievements”.

Sure, [Ascetic] provided some pretty good perks, and was even somewhat complimentary. But the [Harem II] Achievement was just… wrong. So, so very wrong. Then his head felt wrong.

Laying on the ground, he felt as though he was in one of those carnival rides that resembled a centrifuge that spun you around so fast that you could hardly move. He was suddenly very glad that he hadn’t been eating, for his stomach also started doing flips, confusing him more than a little bit because he’d never been negatively affected by carnival rides like that.

“Joram!”

He blinked then blinked again, realizing that his vision had blacked out at some point. He looked up at a very worried Shae’ra as she shook his shoulders trying to get his attention.

“Hi,” he croaked, wondering why his throat felt so dry.

“What happened?” Shae’ra asked as she leaned back, making him realize that she’d been leaning over him from his left side.

“I… think that the Great Protector… got petty,” he said with a frown.

In the past, he was able to receive the benefits of his progress without having to check his Status. But if how he felt was any indication, the damned System had saved up all of his advancements and slapped him with them all at once when he finally checked his notifications.

“That’s…” Shae’ra said, trailing off as she obviously didn’t feel comfortable commenting on that.

“It’s fine, lesson learned,” he said, shaking his head fractionally. “Thanks for checking on me,” he said as he managed to eek out a smile.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Shae’ra said, quickly looking away from him as he noticed her cheeks colouring slightly.

He really hoped that that was how she’d have normally reacted to appreciation.

He took that opportunity to sit up, then stand up, brushing off his clothes as he did.

“Are you done for the day, then?” he asked, trying to diffuse the weirdness in the air.

“Yes,” Shae’ra said, nodding slightly. “I think that starting tomorrow, we’ll be able to start harvesting some vegetables, and even some of the berries and fruit,” she said, smiling at the thought of more fresh produce.

“Are the girls coming along well? Do they like working in the greenhouse?” he asked, motioning for her to follow.

“I think so, yes,” she said after a moment’s thought. “I think that they’re all excited to try new food.”

“I can’t blame them,” he said, chuckling a bit and realizing that he’d needed that laugh.

“Truly. I feel that the work is helping to heal some of their wounds,” she said, then looked a bit panicked.

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” he said, waving it off. “I know full-well that they still need time to heal. Heck, I’ve still got things I need to work through…” he said, shaking his head.

Shae’ra gave him a concerned look that he pretended not to see, which was made easier since he’d only noticed it because of [Touchsight].

“On another note. Do none of them want their own room? What about you? I can’t imagine sharing a room with so many people is terribly comfortable,” he asked as they entered the house.

“I think that they’ll- we’ll, eventually warm to the idea,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “I think that they still feel safer sleeping with others. In fact, I still find that most of the girls are sneaking into another’s bed during the night. Even Ella has come for comfort a few times with me,” she said, her gaze sad.

“Well, just let me know if I can do anything else for them,” he said, then paused as a thought popped into his head. “Wait. I know that I can’t free them because of that law. But what if, instead of being their legal owner, I became their legal guardian?”

Shae’ra stopped dead, her mouth hanging open as she blinked at him.

He waited for her to gather herself before motioning for her to continue following him down the hall to the library where she finally spoke.

“I’m not sure about the legalities here,” she said thoughtfully. “After all, I’m just a [Druid]. But maybe you can inquire about that with Chief Celys? Surely, she would know.”

Joram nodded, making another mental note for M2 to keep track of.

“I’ll do that, then,” he said, then looked around at the empty library just waiting for all of the books to be unpacked. “Say, do you like reading?” he asked, then opened one of the crates and lifted out a book.

Shae’ra’s eyes widened at the sight of the book, then quickly darted to the other crates before she cracked a huge smile.

“Would you like some help unpacking?” she asked with a glint in her eye.

“I’d appreciate it,” he said, then got to work.

It didn’t take too long to get everything unboxed, though it took considerably longer to get everything shelved in such a way that it would be much easier to find something you wanted. He idly toyed with the idea of using the Dewey Decimal Classification System, but decided to push that off for now. The library wasn’t that big yet, though he did now have a few hundred books.

Later, the thought, deciding that he would need to visit many bookstores in the near future. Which likely meant a trip to a much larger city, maybe even the capitol.

“Thanks for your help,” he said once they were done, giving her his third-best smile. Not because he didn’t appreciate her help, but because he was wary of that damn Achievement.

“You’re welcome,” she said, giving him a smile of her own. “Would it be all right for the younglings to come and use the library?” she asked, seemingly uncertain.

“Of course, that’s most of the reason why I bought them all,” he said, shaking his head at the thought of books going unread. “Just be sure to teach them proper respect for the books, though. No folding paged, no eating while reading, and all of that.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said as she, too, shook her head.

“Good, good,” he said, then bade her a good night before heading off to his room, thinking about how long it would take to fill the library.